MaximumPC 2002 09

58 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| FEB 09 | http://www.maximumpc.com

R&D^

EXAMINING TECHNOLOGY AND PUTTING IT TO USE

HOW TO

Hearing top rock, hip-hop, country, and pop artists jam together on a tune

may sound like a clash of genres and egos, but anything is possible when

you don the producer’s cap —KRIS FONG

Mash Up Your Music

HOW TO
Mash Up Your Music

HOW TO

MUSIC, DIGITAL FILES OR CDs

AUDACITY 1.3.6

Free, http://audacity.sourceforge.net

 HEADPHONES OR DECENT SPEAKERS

(Not your laptop speakers)

NCH SOFTWARE SWITCH FOR

WMA FILE CONVERSION

(Optional)

 APPLE ITUNES OR OTHER CD RIPPER

(Optional) Free, http://www.apple.com

SUBMIT YOUR IDEA Have a

great idea for a How To project?

Tell us about it by writing to

[email protected].

R

adiohead jamming with Kanye West would be an odd pairing on any stage,

but in the world of mashups—where the vocals of one song are folded into

another—the weirder the combination, the bigger the bragging rights. While

the RIAA is determined to put an end to the art form, many artists are releasing

a cappellas (vocal-only tracks) and stems (individual tracks of a mix) to support the

creative movement. And you can be part of it too.

Pros often look to Sony ACID Pro ($315, http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com) or

Ableton Live ($600, http://www.ableton.com) to mash up music, but you can do it on

the cheap with Audacity, an open source audio-editing app, and your own music.

We’ll show you some basic techniques—you just need to find two tracks to work

with. Find songs in the same key (like Chris Brown’s “Kiss Kiss” and Puddle of

Mudd’s “Blurry”) or ones that have a similar groove and chord progression (such

as Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”). Or Google

“a cappella download” to find vocal track downloads (for personal use only) and

choose a song in your music collection to pair it with. We always thought

4 Non Blondes’s “What’s Up?” sounded just like Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry,

Be Happy,” so for simplicity’s sake we’ll use these songs for our example.

WHAT YOU NEED

TIME = 120 MIN